FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – American Liberty News (ALN) – in collaboration with respected national security expert Paul Crespo and the Center for American Defense Studies (CADS) – provides our readers the PDB:
Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DAILY BRIEFING.
Get Your Best Daily Defense and Foreign Affairs Intelligence Here in One Brief. Read the summaries or dive deeper via the linked articles.
POLITICS
Senators press Defense Secretary Austin to keep Space Command in Colorado. Austin met with Colorado Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper after they refused to confirm a DoD nominee.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Does the West’s decision to arm Ukraine with tanks bring it closer to war with Russia? The West’s decision to finally send tanks to Ukraine has caused some to ask the uncomfortable question: Does this mean that NATO is now in direct conflict with Russia?
Is helping Ukraine reducing US preparedness, security? Questions are mounting as to how long the United States can continue to supply Ukraine from its own weapons stockpiles without hindering its own security.
BUT MILITARY IS PLENTY WOKE – Top Armed Services Democrat: US military readiness a ‘huge problem.’ Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services committee, said U.S. military readiness is a “huge problem” as global tensions heighten and the war in Ukraine rages on.
WE’VE PROVEN BETTER AT KEEPING OUR FRIENDS FROM HAVING NUKES THAN OUR ENEMIES – Got nukes? During the Cold War, one of the few issues on which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed was that other states should not have nuclear weapons. The likelihood that one of them would use those weapons — or transfer them to a regime or group that would was too great.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Alabama National Guard opens state-of-the-art ‘super-armory.’ The Alabama National Guard’s Foley Readiness Center is large enough to fit two units and can be used for domestic support operations.
US Coast Guard interdicts migrant boat near Haiti carrying nearly 300 people. The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a large migrant boat with hundreds of people on board about 20 miles from the coast of Haiti.
CHINA THREAT
HE’S RIGHT AND BALLSY – KUDOS TO A WARRIOR – US general warns troops that war with China is possible in two years. China could be at war with the United States two years from now, a top Air Force general predicted in a bombastic and unusual memo to troops under his command, asserting a significantly shorter timeline before potential conflict than any other senior U.S. defense official to date.
AS EXPECTED – Pentagon distances itself from Minihan memo suggesting possible war with China in 2025. Comments by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, about a potential war with China in the next few years have generated international headlines and led the Department of Defense to formally distance itself from the remarks.
Marine Corps officially opens Guam base, with an eye toward China. Camp Blaz will ultimately be home to about 5,000 Marines.
OR JUST FUND MORE MARINES – Underfunding the US Army undermines deterrence in Taiwan. Congress must stop shortchanging the Army budget, especially modernization, so it can play its proper role in the Indo-Pacific and worldwide, writes the former chief of US Army Pacific.
China’s top nuclear-weapons lab used US chips decades after ban. The state-owned institute has continued buying computer chips made by Intel and Nvidia despite its inclusion on a U.S. export blacklist in 1997.
UKRAINE WAR
At the Pentagon, push to send F-16s to Ukraine picks up steam. Kyiv has renewed its request for modern fighters in recent days after the U.S. and Germany approved transferring tanks.
Short on time, Biden sought new Ukraine tank plan to break stalemate. Amid growing discord, a new proposal swayed a reluctant ally, as Germany relented on Leopards and the U.S. pledged (eventually) to provide Abrams tanks to Kyiv.
Tanks alone won’t turn the tide of the war in Ukraine. The United States will have to step up its training program to ensure the Ukrainian military can use all the Western-provided equipment effectively.
Zelensky urges allies to send long-range missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his country needs long-range missiles to help combat Russian missile attacks following a blast in the Donetsk region on Saturday that killed three people.
How to fix a howitzer: US offers help line to Ukraine troops. A group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors is using phones and tablets to provide maintenance advice to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 341. People gathered in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to commemorate a British volunteer killed during a rescue mission in the eastern town of Soledar in Donetsk region. At least one person was killed in an air raid on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and three were killed in the southern city of Kherson amid renewed Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia and Ukraine battle for control of villages near key city of Bakhmut. The area is a flash point in an offensive that Moscow views as crucial for its goal of seizing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
66,000 war crimes have been reported in Ukraine. It vows to prosecute them all. The number of potential war crimes in Ukraine is in the tens of thousands, making choices about what to prosecute very difficult.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
Top generals from US, South Korea agree to ‘new starting point’ for their armies. The top army generals from the United States and South Korea pledged on Thursday to strengthen their military alliance and deepen their collaboration in technological ventures.
IRAN THREAT
Israel launched drone attack on Iranian facility, officials say. While the target’s purpose is unclear, the city of Isfahan is a major center of Iranian missile production, research and development.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, ASIA, LATIN AMERICA
Blinken arrives in Egypt as Israeli-Palestinian tensions soar. The US secretary of state begins a Middle East visit with Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, and Iran high on the agenda.
Carrier George H.W. Bush concludes largest joint exercise with Israel. The aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and its carrier strike group wrapped up exercise Juniper Oak in the Mediterranean Thursday, concluding the largest joint exercise between the U.S. and Israel to date.
USS Nimitz back in the South China Sea after Singapore port visit. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group departed Singapore on Thursday after a port visit and is now back in the South China Sea, the Navy announced.
Erdogan says Turkey may accept Finland in NATO, but block Sweden. Turkey and Hungary are the only members of the 30-nation alliance yet to approve the Nordic nations’ application.
Defense firms flock to Hungary amid EU isolation. The Hungarian government and its state-owned holding N7 have signed three joint ventures in December alone, part of a large-scale spending spree for new weapons and production plants.
AS TRUMP URGED AND WAS MOCKED FOR – Spurred by Russia, Germany rolls out 3-year plan to fully equip all armed forces personnel. Funding for the items like protective gear and NVGs will be provided from the government’s €100 billon special arms fund, a seismic uplift in defense spending aimed at ending decades of peacetime underfunding and acquiring new military equipment at pace to deter Russian aggression.
SPACE
MARINES ON CUTTING EDGE – ViaSat sees Marine’s ‘SATCOM as a service’ buy as harbinger of change. Commercial SATCOM providers have long urged DoD and the services to move from buying bandwidth in fits and starts using short-term contracts to service-style contracts that resemble a civilian’s average mobile phone or cable TV/Internet plan.
US MILITARY
PODCAST – MARINES: What’s new in the Marine Corps in 2023. Marine Corps Times editor Andrea Scott and reporter Irene Loewenson break down the latest and biggest stories revolving around the Marine Corps.
Nuclear strike chief seeks cancer review of launch officers. The top Air Force general in charge of the nation’s air- and ground-launched nuclear missiles has requested an official investigation into the number of officers who are reporting blood cancer diagnoses after serving at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
FIX THIS! – Three more sailors die by suicide while their carriers are stuck in shipyards. Three more sailors stationed aboard Navy aircraft carriers undergoing refits have died by suicide in the past two months, with the latest death occurring on Monday.
MILITARY ROBOTS AND AI
Generative AI like viral ChatGPT lands on DISA technology watch list. ChatGPT, a bot launched by OpenAI in November that produces human-like conversations and content, including surreal art and computer code, has caught the eye of U.S. defense officials.
In first update in a decade, the Pentagon plans for AI’s increased role in warfare. The Defense Department is aware of how quickly artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons are becoming a part of war. As a result, it’s updating its automated weapons directive for the first time in more than a decade in order to guide development of new systems.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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“Does this mean that NATO is now in direct conflict with Russia?”
From what Russia has told us, they will not stop after they take Ukraine. They will go after all of the NATO countries. So, it doesn’t make any difference if it’s now or later.
Stop all foreign payment to everyone. Let them take care of themselves. Close the borders and stop paying people to have kids and not work. The list goes on and on and on.